Merchant Shipping (Pollution) Bill [Lords]

I begin by associating the official Opposition with the tribute that the Minister rightly paid to Lord Donaldson. He will be a great loss to the shipping world and if I may, I shall return to some elements of his report to which the Minister did not refer in his speech. I am delighted to be leading for the Opposition on the Merchant Shipping (Pollution) Bill. Given that today is my first outing on merchant shipping since taking over this brief, I hope that it is in order briefly to stress just how important this industry is. It has taken over from aviation as the third largest service industry in the country, with a turnover of almost £10 billion a year. It carries 95 per cent. of our visible trade, and the importance of our merchant fleet to an island bordering the second busiest international waterway in the world cannot be overestimated. It is no wonder that Admiral Jervis—here, I am recalling recent celebrations—famously said the following to William Pitt the younger:"““I do not say that the French will not come. I say only they will not come by sea.””" Indeed, the merchant navy has given extremely gallant service in two world wars, in the Falklands and, most recently, in the Gulf. We welcome the Bill. As we discuss pollution today, we should remember that, as the Minister briefly mentioned, shipping is by far the cleanest form of transport in terms of carbon dioxide emissions. On average, per tonne mile, shipping produces about 10 per cent. of the CO2 produced by road haulage. That is why, despite its brevity, this is a very important Bill. It allows for faster payments of more substantial sums in the aftermath of a major oil spill through the supplementary fund protocol, and it will cut emissions of nitrogen oxides from marine diesel engines. The Bill enables me to demonstrate two of my party’s approaches: the new consensus and the longstanding Conservative commitment to the environment. By far the most important post-war environmental legislation was Harold Macmillan’s Clean Air Act 1956.